Dolls, Fibre Scultpures and Costumes

Posts tagged ‘arts’

The show is on now in the Enterprise Square gallery on Jasper (in Edmonton).

My doll won first prize in its category!

Vrouw Holle – Or – When housework Controlled the Weather

When I was a child in the Netherlands, I had a snow globe with a woman shaking a pillow to make it snow. This was Vrouw Holle. When she swept the floor she created the dunes that blocked the sea, when she washed, it rained. When it stormed she rode with the Wild Hunt gathering unwary souls. She ruled her own underworld. Strong women who cleaned “messes” and created change are part of my heritage. This piece is dedicated to my mother (Johanna Breijer 1930 – 2015) who spent decades working for women behind the scenes in Alberta politics.

A lot has happened since I last posted. Holidays in Jasper with my daughter, and six weeks in Whitehorse with my oldest daughter. I needed that time to try and find myself back somewhat. It has been harder then I expected. Almost 4 years of intense care giving has left my mind in a rut where it wants to keep me ready to jump up and do everyone’s bidding. That means not working on my art work because it will get interrupted. My mind thinks I still need to “thread water” marking time.

My father decided that he wanted to live in a seniors residence with other people of his age so he moved out in August and deeded the house to my sister. So when I returned from Whitehorse we renovated and redecorated. We removed the formerly white carpet (what was my mother thinking off!?!), painted, and put down new flooring. I now have my own bedroom and we moved the studio upstairs.

work space

Sewing area

Cutting space and inspiration wall

What you are not seeing is the wonderful big north facing window. The very very cold big north facing window, in the coldest room in the house, in Edmonton where it regularly gets down to -25c as a high for the day.

Now my new bedroom is in the centre of the house in a nice warm room. It is the former study and it has two very big closets, one that was used for the computer with a desk built in so it could be locked away when my parents were gone. So for the third time I reorganized my studio space. I emptied the boxes of my yarn to under the very cold window (more insulation), I sorted and shredded a lot of person papers and cleared a space in my closet.

View from the bed

work space in the closet

Note the space for the cat. There was another space on the other side but he preferred to be where the lamp was. The body parts are part of a project for the fibre arts group call for submissions.

So for the first time since 1979 I am back in the closet – until spring. I am looking forward to spring.

Just after I got back from Nova Scotia I got an email from Harcourt House reminding me about a call for submissions for their members show. Not giving me time to think about it and back out, my sister pushed me to enter. It was a good thing she went with me because the whole street was torn up and we had to park several blocks away, I would probably have turned around and gone home but she helped carry the dolls.

They chose “Spell for Abundance” for the show. It is their 25th anniversary show on from June 13th to July 5th. It is also part of “The Works“, a city wide arts festival. The opening reception and open house for Harcourt is on June 20th. Which means I have to go and try to not hold up the wall of the gallery, the walls will hold themselves up quite well without my help.

Ok so I am not yet blossoming, but I am “Living Here”. The last of my “possessions” are on their way – my cat and dog – they are flying tomorrow morning. I am chewing my fingernails, metaphorically because they taste awful, actually I am snacking, chewing my nails would be better for my health. I did start working out last week but we are not going to whine about that here.

What I forgot to post last week is that I joined the VAAA “Visual Arts Alberta Association”. My sister and I went back to Harcourt house to see the exhibition that we thought was on. It wasn’t. They were setting up for another one. So we wandered across the hall to see if VAAA had something. They didn’t but we got to talking with Sharon Moore Foster, a potter and sculpture, who signed us up for the VAAA. We had a wonderful talk about art, time and health.

Next week is “The Works” in Edmonton. I am planning to go to the VAAA reception for its “Coming of Age: The Graduates” on the 21st. We might go to some other exhibits too.